Monday, February 12, 2018

Freedom and the Minimum Wage

Richard Ebeling emails:

Dear Bob,

My latest article on the website of the Future of Freedom Foundation is on, “Freedom and the Minimum Wage.”

Most of us value making our own decisions about how to live our lives and with whom to interact, for whatever purposes and at whatever agreed-upon terms. Yet, government, today, acts as the “busybody -in-chief” intervening in much of our daily lives. One instance of such political paternalism is the federal government-imposed minimum wage law.

The government presumes to know better than each and everyone of us what is the terms of exchange at which we may accept a job or an employer may offer us a position. With arrogance and hubris, they presume to have the knowledge, wisdom and ability to determine an individual’s worth to others in the marketplace and what should be imposed as a “living wage” for claimed their benefit.

Instead, the all too frequent consequence is to price out of the market many of those that law is purported to help, due to the minimum wage being above the employer-estimated market value of an existing or prospective employee. It also condemns some with low skills and limited workplace experience to possible permanent unemployment with less of chance to gain the employment opportunities that might make them more valuable for hire in the future.

It also can result in some so unemployed turning to underground and black market job opportunities that carry with them the dangers of violence, corruption and imprisonment.